The Battle of Britain Five Months That Changed History, May—October 1940 by James Holland (z-lib.org).epub

With all the different links in the chain and the mass of different
telephone lines relaying information, any lesser system would have created
utter chaos and mayhem. It worked, however, because in essence it was
very simple and everyone knew precisely what their job was and did not
deviate from that. Only at Bentley Priory was there a complete overview of
what was going on, but Dowding did not then interfere with the operational
and tactical control of his Fighter Groups. The Group Commander and his
controllers decided what sectors and squadrons to use and when. Similarly,
it was then left to the sector controllers to bring their squadrons into contact
with the enemy. In Fighter Command there was no von Rundstedt sticking
his oar in.
But that was not all Dowding had at his disposal. Directly under him
was AA Command with its anti-aircraft guns and searchlights, although the
number of guns available was woeful. Lieutenant-General Pile, C-in-C AA
Command, had only 1,204 heavy ack-ack guns and a pitiful 581 light guns,
as opposed to the 2,232 and 1,860 that it was agreed he should have. In
other words, there were only half and one third the number of guns
considered necessary – and many of these were obsolete. This was not
good. Heavy defence of aircraft factories was necessary, but then airfields,
ports and naval bases also needed defending, as did numerous other
industrial plants. The buck supposedly stopped with Dowding, but, as he
was well aware, such decisions were beyond his realm of experience and he
found himself spending far too much time discussing which of these
precious guns should go where. To get around this, he formed a committee
representing the various different interests and let them thrash it out
between themselves. It also helped that he had an excellent working
relationship with General Pile, and whatever dispositions of guns there were
could be immediately relayed to Groups and sectors and thus to the fighters
in the sky.
He also had some 1,500 barrage balloons in Balloon Command under
his orders, as well as control of the Air Raid Warning System, which was
operated from Bentley Priory. Furthermore, he benefited from whatever
information could be gathered by Air Intelligence and, indeed, from other
intelligence branches via the Air Ministry. Permanently at Fighter
Command HQ were General Pile as well as liaison officers from the other
commands, from the Admiralty, and also the heads of the Observer Corps